Economics
It was interesting to find how dominating American vision is all over the world. I think there’s something to be said about the world’s mindset and its economics and all of that, and I think it affects the way we see ourselves and it affects music.
Author: K'naanTopics: American, Domination, Economics, Famous, Interesting, Mindset, Music, Thinking, Visions
Recognizing that the boundaries of the market are ambiguous and cannot be determined in an objective way lets us realize that economics is not a science like physics or chemistry, but a political exercise… If the boundaries of what you are studying cannot be scientifically determined, what you are doing is not a science.
Author: Ha-Joon ChangTopics: Boundaries, Capitalism, Economics, Famous, Free-market, Science
Economics is (almost) about Life, the Universe and Everything.
Author: Ha-Joon ChangTopics: Economics, Everything, Famous, Life, Universe
So the two champions of free trade, Britain and the US, were not only not free trade economies, but have been the two most protectionist economies among rich countries, i.e. until they each in succession became the world’s dominant industrial power.
Author: Ha-Joon ChangTopics: Champions, Economics, Famous, Free trade, Rich countries
The issue of false consciousness is a genuinely difficult problem that has no definite solution. We should not approve of an unequal and brutal society because surveys show that people are happy. But who has the right to tell those oppressed women or starving landless peasants that they shouldn’t be happy, if they think they are? Does anyone have the right to make those people feel miserable by telling them the ‘truth’? There are no easy answers to these questions, but they definitely tell us that we cannot rely on ‘subjective’ happiness surveys to decide how well people are doing.
Author: Ha-Joon ChangTopics: Economics, Economy, False consciousness, Famous, Happiness, Inequality, Society
Economics is a political argument. It is not – and can never be – a science; there are no objective truths in economics that can be established independently of political, and frequently moral, judgements. Therefore, when faced with an economic argument, you must ask the age-old question ‘Cui bono?’ (Who benefits?), first made famous by the Roman statesman and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Author: Ha-Joon ChangTopics: Argument, Economics, Economy, Famous, Never, Political, Politics, Science
If the world were full of the self-seeking individuals found in economics textbooks, it would grind to a halt because we would be spending most of our time cheating, trying to catch the cheaters, and punishing the caught. The world works as it does only because people are not the totally self seeking agents that free-market economics believes them to be. We need to design an economic system that, while acknowledging that people are often selfish, exploits other human motives to the full and gets the best out of people. The likelihood is that, if we assume the worst about people, we will get the worst out of them.
Author: Ha-Joon ChangTopics: Capitalism, Economics, Famous, Free-market, Seeking, World
Between the Great Depression and the 1970s, private business was viewed with suspicion even in most capitalist economies. Businesses were, so the story goes, seen as anti-social agents whose profit-seeking needed to be restrained for other, supposedly loftier, goals, such as justice, social harmony, protection of the weak and even national glory.
Author: Ha-Joon ChangTopics: Business, Capitalist, Economics, Famous, Goal, Justice, National glory, Protection, Social harmony, Stories
95 percent of economics is common sense made complicated, and even for the remaining 5 percent, the essential reasoning, if not all the technical details, can be explained in plain terms.
Author: Ha-Joon ChangTopics: Common Sense, Complicated, Economics, Famous, Remaining
Once you realize that trickle-down economics does not work, you will see the excessive tax cuts for the rick as what they are — a simple upward redistribution of income, rather than a way to make all of us richer, as we were told.
Author: Ha-Joon ChangTopics: Cutting, Doe, Economics, Economy, Famous, Simple, Social justice, Tax-cuts, Taxation, Taxes
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, capitalism is the worst economic system except for all the other forms.
Author: Ha-Joon ChangTopics: Capitalism, Economics, Famous, Form, Worst
95% of Economics is common sense deliberately made complicated.
Author: Ha-Joon ChangTopics: Common Sense, Complicated, Economics, Famous, Non-fiction
Once you realize that trickle-down economics does not work, you will see the excessive tax cuts for the rich as what they are — a simple upward redistribution of income, rather than a way to make all of us richer, as we were told.
Author: Ha-Joon ChangTopics: Economics, Economy, Famous, Social justice, Tax-cuts, Taxation, Taxes
Economists think the poor need them to tell them that they are poor.
Author: Peter DruckerTopics: Economics, Famous, Meaningful, Poor
Every three or four years I pick a new subject. It may be Japanese art; it may be economics. Three years of study are by no means enough to master a subject but they are enough to understand it. SO for more than 60 years I have kept studying one subject at a time.
Author: Peter DruckerTopics: Economics, Enough, Famous, Meaningful, Subjects, Understand
Above all, innovation is not invention. It is a term of economics rather than of technology.
Author: Peter DruckerTopics: Economics, Famous, Innovation, Invention, Meaningful
My policies are based not on some economics theory, but on things I and millions like me were brought up with: an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay; live within your means; put by a nest egg for a rainy day; pay your bills on time; support the police.
Author: Margaret ThatcherTopics: Economics, Egg, Famous, Meaningful, Millions, Policies, Support, Work